How to find the cell address of a value
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3Get "$A$3"-style coordinates of where a value lives — for audits, debugging, or building references.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =ADDRESS(MATCH(D2,A:A,0),1) | MATCH finds the row; ADDRESS formats it. Column 1 = A. |
| Google Sheets | =ADDRESS(MATCH(D2,A:A,0),1) | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =ADDRESS(MATCH(D2,A:A,0),1) | Identical. |
How it works
MATCH returns the position of "cherry" (row 3) and ADDRESS turns a row/column pair into a reference string: "$A$3". ADDRESS's later arguments control the style — ADDRESS(3,1,4) gives relative "A3". The result is TEXT, not a live reference; to actually pull the value at a computed address, feed it to INDIRECT — though INDEX/MATCH does that more efficiently without the volatile INDIRECT.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =ADDRESS(MATCH(D2,A1:A3,0),1) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned $A$3 — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.